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3 ancient oaks felled to widen road

Savannah Morning News

Employees of local contractor Kelley's Inc. cut limbs from one of several large oaks slated for removal as part of the improvements to Ga. 196. The oaks have been a landmark to the people who travel through the community and were estimated to be 200 years old.

Savannah Morning News

Live oaks on Harold Rogers' property on either side of Ga. 196 are to be destroyed. The property was seized, according to Rogers, by the GDOT to widen and improve the highway. Rogers and his family are resigned to losing the trees, but hope the same does not happen to others in the the state.

Savannah Morning News

Harold Rogers III stands beside one of several large live oak trees on his property in the Fleming community that the Department of Transportation has scheduled for removal as part of improvements to Ga. 196.

Savannah Morning News

Harold Rogers III and his family have lived in the Fleming community since the late 1800s, when his great-grandfather, known as Doctor Rogers, settled amid the large live oak trees along Ga. 196. Those oaks wll be gone due to improvements to the road.

Savannah Morning News

Trees have already been cleared from an area along Ga. 196 near the Shortcut convenience store in Fleming. This view is looking west. The store is a mile from Rogers' property.

FLEMING - Three live oaks estimated to be 200 years old were taken down Thursday to clear the way for widening Ga. 196 between Richmond Hill and Hinesville.

Harold Rogers III, a tree farmer and a 36-year employee of Interstate Paper Co. in Riceboro, still lives here. It was those trees and the beauty of the area that attracted his family to the Liberty County community in the late 1800s.

"According to my grandfather, my great-grandfather said it was the most beautiful spot on this road," Rogers said while watching some of the trees being felled. "He built his house right in the middle of the oaks."

In all, six towering live oaks were targeted for removal. Three more face a similar fate, possibly as early as today.

Rogers said the oaks - some of which were 52 inches in circumference at the base and 60 to 70 feet high - were examined by an arborist about four years ago and estimated to be about 200 years old. The trees once were part of Oak Hampton Plantation and lined the road to Rock Landing and the port of Sunbury.

Rogers said once the trees are removed, a part of Liberty County's history will be gone.

"I just hope that legislation can be enacted to assure that something like this doesn't happen again," Rogers said.

The trees were being removed to clear the way for the four-laning of what many travelers between Hinesville and U.S. 17 just south of Richmond Hill call the "shortcut" or "cutoff."

As chainsaws roared and equipment bellowed, Rogers called the loss "traumatic and unnecessary."

He noted the trees had survived from roughly the Revolutionary War through Sherman's March to the Sea and hurricanes, floods and acts of God up to the present day.

Rogers' family owns land on both sides of Ga. 196, which runs between U.S. 17 and U.S. 84 on the way to Hinesville. At one time, Rogers said, he offered the state 15 acres, free of charge, to relocate the widening project just a few more feet in order to preserve the oaks. The state declined.

Sherry Beal, district communications specialist with the Georgia Department of Transportation's Jesup Field District, said there was a realignment proposal prior to September 2004, but that realignment was not feasible because it would have impacted 3.3 additional acres of wetlands.

Said Rogers' wife, Candace: "My mother-in-law would wake up every morning and open her mini blinds and look at those beautiful, breath-taking oaks that are so majestic. They are stealing them away from her and everybody. People know this spot and talk about how beautiful it is."

According to the GDOT Web site, the roadway will be widened to four lanes, two lanes in each direction separated by a 32-foot wide depressed median. Beal said the proposed completion date is May 31, 2008, at a total cost of almost $40 million.